Barry Bonds and his steroid episode have raised some very important questions, the obvious being the steroid question. But with all this ruckus comes many different viewpoints from different sports writers and as well as regular columnists. What I have found to be particularly counter intuitive is the common premise out there that says that Major League Baseball has as much responsibility if not more for Barry's steroid usage. For every 5 Barry bashers there seems to be one of these arguments. Their point is that because the league allowed steroids at the time, or from their point of view did not have a ban on steroids, Bonds is in less a fault as the league is. These writers are putting out the argument less used in order to get people to read into their story and to try and make sense of it in a society that puts all the responsibility on the individual for their actions.
I couldn't help but realize for the first time after listening to this argument what the writers ideal world is. Its a world where authority has everything covered so as to prevent wrong from happening, or at least to punish wrong. The thought that a country that has laws against killing ever since it started can actually prevent killing is preposterous. Those who wish to desire so will still do so. The action will still occur.
Now of course the numbers will go down, since open hunting season on each other is never opened. The same will and hopefully has applied to the new rules against steroid use in baseball. But a ban will not prevent people from taking steroids, it will only discourage them to. This applies to all things in life that seem to have gone wrong, through the sinful nature that has entered the world. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity covers in a chapter about how it is rather pointless to achieve a goal of a utopian society (why is there even an idea of one, it has to be pinned up against what is wrong, and therefore there has to be a universal wrong). His argument says that at the end of the day, some new form of corruption will make its way in that sabotages the goals of this utopian place.
And that it exactly why decisions are made at the personal level when it comes to morality. The ever famous Puritans, and for all the wrong reasons, crumbled when the Law of God was made the law of the land. It can't happen anymore, not since that wonderful time around 30 A.D. happened. Jesus supplies the grace that we need, as long as we are willing to admit that we have done (and continue to do) wrong. Barry is accountable only to God and then himself, to God because of the expectations He has for us, and to himself for the children he has to set an example for. Its not hard to recall why as a teen we all seem to paint a lot more graffiti and brake more windows in our life then and not later (hopefully not later) due to the inability to grasp why on earth there are laws to begin with. Of course for some that frame of mind continues on into the dazed and confused college years, but eventually one has to pay his due to the man.
Unfortunately, we all have to pay our due to the Man, God in the flesh, at all breathing moments of our lives. Bonds may be right to have stuck a needle into his posterior (which some suggest)when the law of baseball did not prevent such an act, but what about sticking that needle in the presence of God? And that goes for everyone as well, because I don't know if Barry is a Christian or not determines how I react to this. If he is, then he has some explaining to do to God. If he isn't, then literally he did nothing good or bad when he used steroids under the non-banned era in the viewpoint of an atheist, however still not escaping final judgment. Its our personal decision to follow God's commands after being saved that truly distinguishes if we truly believe in being rescued from the sinful nature. Setting up laws of a country or a league can only discourage, it can't make the decision of taking or not taking the action for us.
I couldn't help but realize for the first time after listening to this argument what the writers ideal world is. Its a world where authority has everything covered so as to prevent wrong from happening, or at least to punish wrong. The thought that a country that has laws against killing ever since it started can actually prevent killing is preposterous. Those who wish to desire so will still do so. The action will still occur.
Now of course the numbers will go down, since open hunting season on each other is never opened. The same will and hopefully has applied to the new rules against steroid use in baseball. But a ban will not prevent people from taking steroids, it will only discourage them to. This applies to all things in life that seem to have gone wrong, through the sinful nature that has entered the world. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity covers in a chapter about how it is rather pointless to achieve a goal of a utopian society (why is there even an idea of one, it has to be pinned up against what is wrong, and therefore there has to be a universal wrong). His argument says that at the end of the day, some new form of corruption will make its way in that sabotages the goals of this utopian place.
And that it exactly why decisions are made at the personal level when it comes to morality. The ever famous Puritans, and for all the wrong reasons, crumbled when the Law of God was made the law of the land. It can't happen anymore, not since that wonderful time around 30 A.D. happened. Jesus supplies the grace that we need, as long as we are willing to admit that we have done (and continue to do) wrong. Barry is accountable only to God and then himself, to God because of the expectations He has for us, and to himself for the children he has to set an example for. Its not hard to recall why as a teen we all seem to paint a lot more graffiti and brake more windows in our life then and not later (hopefully not later) due to the inability to grasp why on earth there are laws to begin with. Of course for some that frame of mind continues on into the dazed and confused college years, but eventually one has to pay his due to the man.
Unfortunately, we all have to pay our due to the Man, God in the flesh, at all breathing moments of our lives. Bonds may be right to have stuck a needle into his posterior (which some suggest)when the law of baseball did not prevent such an act, but what about sticking that needle in the presence of God? And that goes for everyone as well, because I don't know if Barry is a Christian or not determines how I react to this. If he is, then he has some explaining to do to God. If he isn't, then literally he did nothing good or bad when he used steroids under the non-banned era in the viewpoint of an atheist, however still not escaping final judgment. Its our personal decision to follow God's commands after being saved that truly distinguishes if we truly believe in being rescued from the sinful nature. Setting up laws of a country or a league can only discourage, it can't make the decision of taking or not taking the action for us.
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